OUR HISTORY

Repairers of the Breach is a nonpartisan 501 (c) 3 tax exempt not-for-profit organization that seeks to build a moral agenda rooted in a framework that uplifts our deepest moral and constitutional values to redeem the heart and soul of our country. We challenge the position that the preeminent moral issues are prayer in public schools, abortion, and property rights. Instead, we declare that the moral public concerns of our faith traditions are how our society treats the poor, women, LGBTQ people, children, workers, immigrants, communities of color, and the sick--the people whom Jesus calls “the least of these.” Our moral traditions point to equal protection under the law, the desire for peace within and among nations, the dignity of all people, and the responsibility to care for our common home.

Repairers of the Breach was founded in 2015 by the Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II as a way to organize, train, and work with a diverse school of prophets from every US state and the District of Columbia. Based in Goldsboro, North Carolina, Repairers of the Breach works nationally to advance a moral agenda that uplifts our deepest constitutional and moral values of love, justice, and mercy. Our training institute (the “Moral Political Organizing Leadership Institute Summit”) provides moral activists with the support and tools they need to engage moral analysis, moral articulation, and moral activism regarding public policy.

In 2016, Repairers of the Breach published the “Higher Ground Moral Declaration,” a moral public policy framework, which guides our work and is used by moral activists seeking to shift state and federal policies. The publication of this document coincided with the launch of “The Revival: Time for a Moral Revolution of Values,” a national moral revival tour, which served as a catalyst for renewed moral activism among faith and community leaders. The first leg of the tour covered 15 states and the District of Columbia, including North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, Texas, Oklahoma, and New York, from April 2016 through January 2017. On September 12, 2016 Repairers of the Breach organized a “Moral Day of Action” in over half the states, the largest coordinated action on state capitals in U.S. history, calling for state governments to embrace the “Higher Ground Moral Declaration.”

In 2017, Repairers of the Breach joined the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights, and Social Justice, the Popular Education Project, and hundreds of local and national partners, to launch the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. This multi-state movement has emerged from more than a decade of work by grassroots community and religious leaders, organizations, and movements fighting to end systemic racism, poverty, the war economy, environmental destruction, and other injustices.

To repair the breach caused by centuries of systemic oppression and injustice in our country, we must organize, train, and work together with this diverse school of prophets and moral activists who represent every state and the District of Columbia. They shall be called, "The Repairers of the Breach: The Restorers of Our Communities."

NOTE: Copy of the tax exempt letter is available upon request.

OUR TEAM

Rosalyn Pelles | Vice President

Rev. Erica N. Williams | National Social Justice Organizer

Laurel Ashton | Senior National Social Justice Organizer

Charmeine Fletcher | Executive Assistant

Yara Allen | Director of Cultural Arts and Theo-Musicologist

Steve Knight | National Faith Organizer

Clinton Wright | National Social Justice Organizer

Rev. Shyrl Uzzell | Seminary Tour Coordinator

The Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II

The Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II is the President & Sr. Lecturer of Repairers of the Breach, Co-Chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call For Moral Revival; Bishop with the College of Affirming Bishops and Faith Leaders; Visiting Professor at Union Theological Seminary; Pastor of Greenleaf Christian Church, Disciples of Christ in Goldsboro, North Carolina, and the author of three books: Revive Us Again: Vision and Action in Moral Organizing; The Third Reconstruction: Moral Mondays, Fusion Politics, and The Rise of a New Justice Movement; and Forward Together: A Moral Message For The Nation.

Rev. Dr. Barber is also the architect of the Forward Together Moral Movement that gained national acclaim with its Moral Monday protests at the North Carolina General Assembly in 2013. These weekly actions drew tens of thousands of North Carolinians and other moral witnesses to the state legislature. More than 1,200 peaceful protesters were arrested, handcuffed and jailed. On September 12, 2016 Rev. Dr. Barber led a “Moral Day of Action,” the largest coordinated action on state capitals in U.S. history, calling for state governments to embrace a moral public policy agenda. On February 11, 2017, he led the largest moral march in North Carolina state history, with over 80,000 people calling on North Carolina’s elected officials to embrace a moral public policy agenda.

A highly sought after speaker, Rev. Dr. Barber has given keynote addresses at hundreds of national and state conferences, including the 2016 Democratic National Convention. He has spoken to a wide variety of audiences including national unions, fraternities and sororities, motorcycle organizations, drug dealer conferences, women’s groups, economic policy groups, voting rights advocates, LGBTQ equality and justice groups, environmental and criminal justice groups, small organizing committees of domestic workers, fast food workers, and national gatherings of Christians, Muslims, Jews, and other people of faith.

Rev. Dr. Barber served as president of the North Carolina NAACP, the largest state conference in the South, from 2006 - 2017 and currently sits on the National NAACP Board of Directors. A former Mel King Fellow at MIT, he is currently Visiting Professor of Public Theology and Activism at Union Theological Seminary and is a Senior Fellow at Auburn Seminary. Rev. Dr. Barber is regularly featured in media outlets such as MSNBC, CNN, New York Times, Washington Post, and The Nation Magazine, among others. He is the 2015 recipient of the Puffin Award and the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Award.